Van Gerwen whitewashes Taylor with 120 average in Bristol exhibition!

Michael van Gerwen continued his World Championship preparations with a stunning whitewash win over Phil Taylor in the final of a star-studded exhibition event in Bristol on Saturday evening.

Over 1,500 fans were packed into Bristol’s Action Indoor Sports Centre for the inaugural staging of ‘Nowhere to Hide’ and Van Gerwen was in rampant form; averaging an incredible 120.24 to whitewash Taylor 4-0, despite ‘The Power’ averaging over 100 himself.

Van Gerwen was in blistering form throughout, kicking off proceedings with seven perfect darts and beginning the second leg with a 180; therefore his first three scoring visits to the board were all maximums. He registered three successive 12-darters to establish a 3-0 cushion, before rounding-off a stunning triumph inside 14 darts.

The night began with the JDC European Open Final between Bradley Brooks and Jarred Cole, with Brooks prevailing in a last-leg decider. The four semi-finalists from this event, which also included Alfie Jacques and Rusty Jake Rodriguez, then faced some of the biggest names in darts.

Van Gerwen followed up a 2-0 win over European Open champion Brooks by beating the legendary Wayne Mardle 4-2 in the quarter-finals. He then defeated 2005 world finalist and local lad Mark Dudbridge by the same scoreline in the semi-finals, after ‘Flash’ had beaten both Richard North and BDO star Danny Noppert without dropping a leg.

Taylor began the night with a 2-0 victory over European Open finalist Cole, before beating promising youngster John Brown 4-0. John’s dad Steve lost in a last-leg decider to Vincent van der Voort, who then succumbed 4-1 to ‘The Power’ in the last four, but the night ended in familiar circumstances; with MvG picking up yet another title.

Photo Credit: Lawrence Lustig/PDC

Nowhere To Hide

Michael Van Gerwen 2-0 Bradley Brooks (JDC)

Phil Taylor 2-0 Jarred Cole (JDC)

Vincent Van der Voort 2-0 Alfie Jacques (JDC)

Wayne Mardle 2-0 Rusty Jake Rodriguez (JDC)

Preliminary Round  

Mark Dudbridge 2-0 Richard North

Quarter Finals

Michael Van Gerwen 4-2 Wayne Mardle

Mark Dudbridge 4-0 Danny Noppert

Phil Taylor 4-0 John Brown

Vincent Van der Voort 4-3 Steve Brown

Semi Finals

Michael Van Gerwen 4-2 Mark Dudbridge

Phil Taylor 4-1 Vincent Van der Voort

Final

Michael Van Gerwen 4-0 Phil Taylor